Ok,
new Met season, new attempt to continue actually blogging.
First up, not at the Met. Anna Bolena at Washington
National Opera. Sonia Ganassi was Seymour, Oren Gradus Henry, Claudia
Huckle was Smeton, and Shalva Mukeria was Percy. Aaron Blake sang the small part of Hervey,
which in this production, ended up with lots of non-singing stage-time, some
weirdly homoerotic glancing at Henry, and an unusually large cod-piece.
First,
SondRad’s voice is too big for the Kennedy Center Opera House. It was
ridiculous. Her voice towered/soared/erupted above all others. She took every optional high option and then
some, but always in strange places. There were several options that most sopranos
tend to take that but SondRad sang the written low note, but then in weird bits
of cabalettas she was screaming what sounded like Cs and Ds all over the
place. Also, brilliant use of deep scary chest, often immediately after
high screams. Fantastic!
The Act I finale was probably the best part, as expected.
Weirdly though, near the end when Anna has a very high note, then another high
note, and ending on the high D, they cut this section so there was only one
note and then the D; dunno why. Couldn’t even hear Seymour in this
scene. I have a recording, and Seymour is barely there. The whole ensemble is very unbalanced without
Seymour being as loud as Anna. La Rad
dominated this ensemble, and while her D was kinda short, it was explosive and
thrilling.
Percy
was a mixed bag. Huge voice, tons of excitement in the voice, ability to
rip out high notes. He took every high option up, the most appreciated one
being the end of his big duet with Anna where he begs her to come back and she
rejects him. But he seemed kinda boring, acting wasn’t so great.
His big scene near the end was good, but not great. And, by the way, Met
seats are way way comfier; I was suffering near the end of this 3-hour epic.
Seymour
was good, but too small-voiced. Fantastic acting, great character she
turned Seymour into, and fine whenever she wasn’t competing with an
ensemble. The duet between she and
SondRad brought the best out the best in Seymour, but she still wasn’t loud
enough to really compete. Henry was pretty good, great actor, nice
singing. Poor guy cracked his very last note, but then he took a breath,
and sang it again with great force and held it forever. Poor guy though.
Then
SondRad had her big scene. Weird tempos; too fast during parts where she
could have sung forever on one breath, and not enough push in psycho bits and
cabalettas. The big aria went very very well until she weirdly took a
very high option right near the end, and almost screamed it out. I don’t
know if she just lost control and couldn’t scale it back, or if the same
singing at the Met wouldn’t have been as offensively loud, but it definitely
broke the spell and the applause were not what was deserved overall. Further proof that half of opera clapping
volume relates directly to screamy-highness-loudness-length of final note (or,
in this case, how pianissimo can you go while still actually producing noise,
and for how long?).
Then, right
in time for some psycho-rage in the final cabaletta, irritatingly, a stupid
cage fell down around Sondrad and her terrible-looking chopped-off-hair to
remind us she’s in a cell, which blocked everyone in the theater from getting a
good look at her. It was kinda cool how she desperately grabbed and the
bars and flung herself around, but it would’ve been way nice to actually see
her. The final cabaletta was really quite spectacular. She trilled
the last note as if she were going to take it up to Eflat, but at the last
second I think decided not to and went down, which kinda disappointed everyone
I think. Great performance overall, I think when she’s done a few more,
with a better conductor, and in the giant Met barn, this will be a fantastic
role for SondRad; can’t wait for when she brings it to NY!
No comments:
Post a Comment